Suomen ilmavoimien lentokoneet 1 : MiG-21 in Finnish Air Force
110: Apali, 2004. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Text in English and Finnish. 192 pp. Some scratching on the covers.
Born in Kotka in 1942, Jyrki Laukkanen served in the Finnish Air Force from 1966 until 2002. He began his flying at the age of 16 with primary gliders, gratuated as an aeronautical engineer from the Institute of Technology at Helsinki in 1968, joining the air force pilot training at Kauhava on the same time.
After conscript service he served two years as an enlisted pilot at the Fighter Squadron 31 at Rissala, where he got his training on the MiG-21 fighter. In 1970 Laukkanen was transferred to the Flight Test Center at Halli appointed to a vacancy of an engineer officer. This started a long lasting career as a test pilot in the Finnish Air Forces, 32 years until he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in August 2002. Jyrki Laukkanen logged a new record in military flying hours in the Finnish Air Force, a total of 9913 hours of which 5555 hours were in jets. Only in MiG fighters he has gathered 1285 hours in air. The 1000 hour mark was exceeded also with Fouga Magister, Hawk, Learjet and Valmet Vinka.
Besides working as a military test pilot, Laukkanen has been flying over 4000 hours with sailplanes and 1800 hours with llight civil aircraft. This flying has continued also after the retirement. Altogether Jyrki Laukkanen has piloted airplanes almost 16000 hours. Besides of the flying his special hobby has been photographing aircraft and during the years he has taken over 55000 photos. The results can be seen on the pages of this book. Near Fine. Item #5285
ISBN: 9525026396
Price: $180.00